Historical Markers and War Memorials in Kankakee County, Illinois
Kankakee is the county seat for Kankakee County
Adjacent to Kankakee County, Illinois
Ford County(2) ► Grundy County(3) ► Iroquois County(7) ► Livingston County(47) ► Will County(119) ► Lake County, Indiana(40) ► Newton County, Indiana(2) ►
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On Sand Bar Road (Illinois Route 42) 0.2 miles north of Day Road, on the right when traveling north.
Historical Marker
McHie Ferry
Est. 1910 - Disc. 1920
Kankakee County's First Ferry
Made by Wm. and James McHie
Aroma Park Lions Club — — Map (db m9675) HM
Near Straford Drive East just west of Main Street NW (Illinois Route 102), on the left when traveling west.
Many of the nineteenth-century French-Canadian settlers of Bourbonnais Grove planted the Jardin aux Potages (literaly translated from French to English as “Garden of the Kitchen”). Altough local history does not indicate the exact . . . — — Map (db m105653) HM
On Main Street Northwest (Illinois Route 102) at South Main Street (U.S. 52), on the right when traveling east on Main Street Northwest.
[left panel] Darkness engulfed the frozen landscape of the northern edge of Bourbonnais on the evening of Monday, March 15, 1999, when the Amtrak train, the City of New Orleans, heading south from Chicago, collided at the McKnight . . . — — Map (db m177502) HM
On Straford Drive East just west of Main Street NW (Illinois Route 102), on the left when traveling west.
Bourbonnais Grove’s first families came from Quebec’s Upper St. Lawrence Valley in the 1830s and ’40s to settle what would become the largest 19th century French-Canadian agrarian village in Illinois. Some immigrants moved on to found St. Anne, St. . . . — — Map (db m105623) HM
On Straford Drive East just west of Main Street NW (Illinois Route 102), on the left.
Dedicated to the memory of Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, Noel Le Vasseur, Francois Bourbonnais—early pioneers in the employ of The American Fur Company who had a post near this site. Father de Pontavisse, first priest and religious . . . — — Map (db m105636) HM
Near Crosswell Avenue north of Perry Street, on the right when traveling north.
Durham-Perry Farmstead is located on the Perry Farm. It is maintained and operated as an historic site by the Bourbonnais Township Park District.
This plan shows the farmstead as it is today. The drawing is not the scale. The farmstead occupies . . . — — Map (db m58104) HM
On South Main Street (U.S. 52) just south of Main Street Northwest (Illinois Route 102), on the right when traveling south.
Father of Bourbonnais Voyageur, Fur Trader and First Permanent Settler of Bourbonnais GroveNoël Le Vasseur and his wife Watch-e-kee arrived here in 1832. He bought large tracts of land from the Potawatomi Indians and encouraged hundreds of . . . — — Map (db m177500) HM
Near Croswell Avenue north of Perry Street, on the left when traveling east.
Thomas Durham bought 160 acres on this site in 1835 from Gurdon S. Hubbard. Known as the Jonveau Reserve, the land lay in an area called Bourbonnais Grove. Durham opened 20 acres for cultivation. In January 1836, parts of Cook and Iroquois Counties . . . — — Map (db m105729) HM
Near Croswell Avenue north of Perry Street, on the right when traveling north.
Thomas Durham, a Quaker, was born on October 1, 1784, in Brunswick, Virginia, to “a large and influential family” of English origin. They
had settled in Virginia in the later part of the 17th or early part of the 18th century.
. . . — — Map (db m105800) HM
On Dixie Highway (Illinois Route 1) at West River Street, on the right when traveling south on Dixie Highway.
Before there was farmland, there were untamed wetlands. One of the largest in North America was the Grand Kankakee Marsh, which saturated nearly a million acres east of Momence and into northern Indiana. This vast wetland, larger than the Florida . . . — — Map (db m177895) HM
Near North Locust Street just south of East 2nd Street, on the right when traveling north.
1912 Edward Chipman Public Library has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior — — Map (db m177980) HM
On North Dixie Highway (Illinois Route 1) just north of West Washington Street, on the right when traveling south.
has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior Contributing property to the Downtown Momence Historic District — — Map (db m177994) HM
On North Dixie Highway (Illinois Route 1) just north of West Washington Street, on the right when traveling south.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, . . . — — Map (db m177993) HM WM
On Illinois Route 1 just north of East River South Road when traveling north.
This trail was blazed by Gurdon S. Hubbard, 1822–1824, connecting the trading posts of the American Fur Company between Vincennes and Chicago. Momence, near the upper crossing of the Kankakee River, is on this trail. Known also as the . . . — — Map (db m105838) HM
On County Road N 232 East (Illinois Route 114) 0.1 miles east of Local Road N14500E, on the right when traveling east.
In honor of Walter, Andrew and George Hess, pioneers, whose frontier courage, strength and spirit typified the early days in the Kankakee Valley. Settled here 1839. — — Map (db m216216) HM
